Part II: Teaching These Models in the Super Trader Program by Van K. Tharp, Ph.D.

There is a fundamental NLP presupposition that if one
person can do something than anyone else can also do that same thing.
Tony Robbins once argued that there were probably certain limitations to
this, such as you couldn’t expect a really short person to be a
basketball star. But after he said that, Spud Webb (who was about 5 feet
7 inches tall) won the NBA slam dunk contest in 1987.

Well, I operated under the assumption for many years: that I could
just teach the various models we’ve developed and anyone could achieve
trading success as long as they cleared enough blocks to be able to
install the models. In fact, my first Super Trader program, which
started around 1995 was simply a two-year program in which you could do
up to four two-day consulting sessions with me (which involved clearing
out psychological blocks) and attend all of our workshops that were
given during that period (about 4-5 of them). We charged $50,000 for the
two years (i.e., $25,000 per year) and even though the price of our
current program goes up yearly we still haven’t come close to that
annual price level yet.

I’m a modeler and I became very interested in modeling those who
achieved the most success in the program. What did they do that the
others did not? Topics came up like willingness to do massive
psychological work (versus not being willing); developing a business
plan to guide their trading (which a few did), and many other things. So
as I learned more about what it took to create success in trading, the
Super Trader program evolved and I have begun to see the program as a
series of models. TOTE is one model construct that comes from NLP and is
very useful.

NLP TOTE MODEL

The TOTE model comes from Miller, G., Galanter, E., and Pribram, K.
Plans and the Structure of Behavior (1960). It was one of my favorite
books as an undergraduate psychology student and it was also a favorite
of the developers of NLP who used it as a basis for modeling.

TOTE is an acronym which stands for Trigger Operate Test Exit.

The basic operations are shown in the figure below.

A test-trigger starts the process (i.e., you raise a
glass of water to you lips); you do some sort of operation (i.e., drink
the water); and at some point you test some idea (i.e., is the glass
empty and/or am I still thirsty?). If the test is passed, then you exit
and perhaps move to another operation; if not then you continue the
operation (drinking).

A new operation might be as simple as filling the glass
again, because you are still thirsty and the glass is empty. So we have
a simple example of nested TOTES as shown in the diagram.

What is great about TOTE loops is that the motivation for the loop
comes from within the loop. A TOTE loop is controlled by a goal and not
some external stimulus.

The TOTE model can also be used at a higher level for determining
how a rather large task is accomplished. First, as in all systems, there
is an input and an output. Then goals and evidence for meeting those
goals are determined in the TEST process. Here you ask, what’s desired
and how do I know I have that?

Input: What kind of input does the model attend to? If the input
is inadequate, you will probably never reach the goal in an adequate
way.

Output: What type of goal is the model attempting to achieve. How are these goals represented internally (what’s the map)?

TEST: What is the goal and what is the evidence (criteria?) for
meeting the goal. Often in human beings the evidence is a simple
submodality change.

The second box is a series of actions and responses to a
problem (i.e., not having the goal). These are the operations of the
TOTE. You establish what you want and how you will know that you have
it. Then you’ll perform a series of operations until you meet the
evidence for having it. In the Operations box, you are essentially
asking:

What sort of mental and behavioral steps are necessary (according to
the model) for one to implement choices and thus reach the goal?

If there are also obstacles to achieving the goal, the initial
operations are not enough, then how do you map out the challenges in a
useful way?

Once you’ve mapped them out, how do you find and select the
appropriate choices to deal with the challenges to meeting the goal?

And, it must determine (probably through nested TOTEs) at what
logical level it needs to operate. Thus, the Operations can include many
nested TOTEs.

To make the TOTE effective, you need what NLP would call
well-formed goals (business consultants often call these SMART Goals
though they are slightly different). A well-formed goal has the
following characteristics:

The goal is stated in positive terms. It is practically and
logically impossible to give someone the negation of an experience. For
example, I don’t want to be so fearful of missing a signal in the
market. IF that’s what a person states, then ask “what do you want
instead of that?”

The goal is defined and evaluated in sensory based terms. (Ongoing,
short term, and final, long term). You must be able to measure and
determine the progress being achieved. And, although this might be an
internal state change, you still need to evaluate it in terms of
something that is measurable. Thus, you need to establish two sets of
tests for the outcome. One for the setting in which the change is made
and another for the setting in which the change will be applied. Ask:
“How will I know that I have achieved the outcome”?

The goal is initiated and maintained by the person or group who desires the goal. Smart
goals must be assignable, but when you are talking about personal
change — that doesn’t work; it’s abnegating responsibility. For example,
a business goal might be that you want employees to stop complaining
about accidents (notice this is negative). So you first have to ask
“what do you want? An example of a positive response is “achieving a
perfect safety record each month.” Then rather than say, “Employees need
to be more careful” you need to set up specific outcomes that are in
the control of the person making the request. “What would demonstrate
that you have the resources necessary to get your employees to follow
protocol so there will be fewer accidents?”

The goal is made to preserve the positive by-products of the present state. If
you want to give up a habit, such as smoking, then you need to make
sure that you can maintain the positive reasons why you smoke. For
example, people may smoke because it relaxes them and because it reminds
them to breathe more deeply. If someone gives up smoking, they may find
they are tense and cannot relax so they will probably resume the habit.
You also need to determine what will happen when they adopt the new
behavior, perhaps there will be consequences of the new behavior that
are very undesirable. For example, you want to make a lot of money
trading. You do that but then suddenly find you are becoming a heavy
drinker or a compulsive spender. What’s going on to produce that new
behavior? Or what
was going on with the hold habit that prevented the new undesirable
behavior from occurring? To understand all of this, you really need an
accurate map of the system.

The goal is appropriately contextualized to fit the ecology of the surrounding system.
People usually say that they want the outcome under all conditions and
at all times but quite often, that’s not appropriate. As a result, you
must determine “What is the context in which the outcome is wanted? And
what is the context in which the outcome is not wanted?” For example,
you might feel that you need to set boundaries around yourself to make
sure that you are respected. But what are the boundaries? And would you
want them to occur under all conditions. Another example might be that
you want to discipline your children, but under all conditions? Are
there situations where you want them to be spontaneous and you wouldn’t
discipline them?

TOTE Model of the Super Trader Program.

I once drew a couple of mind maps to show how complex the Super
Trader program had become and you can see these below. (A mind map is a
visual representation created around a single concept, drawn as an image
in the center of a blank page, to which associated representations of
ideas such as images, words and parts of words are added.)

Then I applied some simple NLP models to these mind maps and reduced them to a set of nested TOTEs as in the following diagram.

So the test for the program is that you adopt all of the
modeling work VTI has done on what great traders do. Here are the
primary models for the ST program. (Notice if you have adopted all of
these models.)

Tharp Think Beliefs (which includes critical concepts like
R-multiples and the SQN® number. (click here for a brief overview
of each concept)

The Top Tasks of Trading (Detailed in the Peak Performance Home Study course)

How to Develop a System that Fits You

Adopt VTI systems that work (workshops/playbook)

Develop your own systems

Can operate in most(all?) market types

How to Position Size to Meet Your Objectives

Winning the Infinite Wealth Game

Preliminary (not fully developed) — how to understand market type

Preliminary (not fully developed) — understand systems thinking

In order to you to adopt those models effectively, we believe that you
have to raise your consciousness so we help you do massive self-work.
Our mission at VTI is “transformation through a trading metaphor” and
this is what ST1 is all about. Here are the evidence criteria for
increased consciousness (which is the second set of tests in the model
above):

12 Evidence Criteria for Increased Consciousness

At least 350 on the Hawkins scale (ideally 500)

Happiness test score consistently over 65

Excellent Ongoing Awareness of Beliefs/Emotions/Thoughts

Awareness of your key strategies

Convincer (what modalities/how many times)

Motivation (what submodalities)

Decision Making (especially are criteria appropriate?)

Awareness of your values and what drives you.

Awareness of your parts and an absence of inner conflict.

Awareness of anything else that might have you automatically doing non-useful things unconsciously

Clear all non-useful beliefs at the identity level or higher

Awareness of beliefs

Releasing the Charge

Clear all screts since secrets are just issues with charge for
you (it’s the charge that makes it a secret). When the secret is clear,
it will 1) no longer be considered a secret; or 2) you will totally
forget it existed.

Strong relationship with Inner Guidance

Trust

Regular dialogue with Inner Guidance (so it can continue to raise your consciousness)

Guided by strong purpose/vision

Document five major transformation (when you accomplish 1-11
above you will probably already have them) so that you can handle
anything else that comes up in trading. Put these into an article to
help others.

To meet those criteria, we take you through a series of Nested
TOTEs, where the operations to meet those criteria and to learn the
models include:

Peak 101:

Learn Tasks of Trading

Mental State Control

Parts and Conflict Resolution

Feeling release

Learn Mind to Muscle for Tharp Think

Peak 202

Understand spiritual beliefs

Contact with Inner Guidance

Transformation Mediation/Preparation for TfM 28-day course

Understanding Winning Strategies for Key Parts

Trader Reinvention Game

Peak 203

Raise Happiness Score 20 points

Really get shadow parts

Really understand how what’s out there is a projection.

Begin to understand “the perfection of the what is.”

Peak 204

Understand Modeling

Understand Mind to Muscle

Understand Key Strategies, including convincer, motivation, and decision making

New Infinite Wealth Workshop

Learn the Infinite Wealth Model

Learn that Wealth is an inner game and clear blocks

Learn Mind to Muscle of Key Wealth Principles

Oneness Awakening

Become a Blessing Giver

Strengthen/Develop Inner Guidance Connection

Clear Major Relationships (Parents/Spouse)

Provide you with a key tool in your transformation

Get/Give a Minimum of 400 blessings each year that you are in
the Super Trader program. This is major and provides the impetus for
many of the transformations.

If 20 people are in a workshop and 10 are blessing givers, then you could get/receive 30 blessing each day.

Thus you will need about 14 such workshop days to meet this criterion each year.

At the summit you could easily have 35 attendees, 30 of who
are blessing givers. So each day you would give receive 65 blessing. If
you stayed for 9 days, you would give receive about 585 blessings.
This alone should be enough of a reason for you to attend the summit if
you are a super trader student.

Systems Thinking Workshop

Make useful maps and realize they are not the territory.

See the interactions between everything.

Have useful tools to look at and simplify the complex.

Be able to adapt to the interactions between self-system-market as they constantly change.

Peak Performance Course/Lessons in the Super Trader Program

Mind to Muscle Tharp Think principles.

Understand the Metaprograms that run you unconsciously.

To learn how you motivate yourself and get a basic introduction to risk in volume 1 of the Peak home study.

To finish Volume 1, be able to calculate R-multiples values,
understand risk, and know how to duplicate success. Get the
psychological, risk, and position sizing experience from playing all
levels of the game at various levels of efficiency.

To determine at least 400 identity beliefs from about 20 parts and see if they are useful and have charge.

To help you understand the stressors in your life and increase your wellness and health through diet and exercise.

To continue to reduce your stressors and to be able to monitor your thoughts and feelings through our simulated trading game.

Do a Life Review Exercise to get an idea of what’s impacted
you and how much plus get an idea of the many miracles that have
occurred in your life.

To understand the impact of beliefs and values on your life, and to do a value elicitation.

To help you with goals and any obstacles that might prevent you from reaching your goals, including internal conflicts.

To take you through a process to resolve your internal
conflicts plus review the entire content of volume 3 of the Peak
Course.

To help you understand mental state control, all of the
procedures you have available to do that and to notice the major
charges you have remaining. Also to begin to release charges.

To Use the Peak 101 feeling release method to release charge.

To do the Work of Byron Katie so you understand how you
project your beliefs, and that beliefs are all made up and only useful
in a limited number of contexts. At this point all your charged beliefs
should be cleared. You will be doing 50 JYN worksheets and about 300
One Belief at a Time worksheets. You need to take Peak 203 before doing
this lesson.

To use the Felix Process to rid yourself of your remaining problems and issues.

To indicate that you understand your decision making
strategy, convincer strategy and motivator strategies so you become
more independent in your thinking. You probably should take Peak 204:
Mental Strategies before doing this lesson.

To determine any flaws in your various strategies and fix them.

To complete your Infinite Wealth Plan. You should take the Infinite Wealth Workshop before doing this plan.

To play the Trader Reinvention game, find the winning
strategy of a number of parts and plan for ST2. You should probably
take Peak 202 at least once (maybe twice before doing this lesson).

To demonstrate your five transformations and demonstrate to
Van that you have raised your consciousness enough to move into ST2.

To Mind to Muscle Korzybski/NLP principles.

Finally, you reach the application TOTEs. The criteria for these tests include:

Develop a Business Planning Handbook to Guide You

The Blueprint Workshop provides a very thorough outline for this.

Trading Beyond the Matrix also has a guideline.

Develop/Adopt three non-correlated systems that work in different market types

Super Trader Playbook, which includes most Super Trader systems
plus systems from old technical workshops that we no longer teach.